Continued: Road Rage: Lino Lakes City Council elections could hinge on road-repair debate

She moved to Lino Lakes in 2004 from Falcon Heights. She served on the charter commission from 2007 to 2010. She is married with two children.

Rob Rafferty

Times have changed, and so must the charter, said incumbent Rob Rafferty.

“I do not think the charter works right now,” Rafferty said.

He supports amending it so that road rebuilds can be done without a referendum. Fixing roads is a public-safety issue that also will help preserve property values, he said.

“Whether its tough economic times or not, we have to do the right thing for the good of the city,” Rafferty said. “These are our neighbors. We work together as one. … That’s the right thing to do, to help each other.”

Rafferty, 57, has served on the City Council for four years. He is also a former member of the charter commission. He is the director of information systems and a minority owner in Rafferty Rafferty Tollefson Lindeke Architects in St. Paul, a firm started by his father and his uncle. He moved to Lino Lakes in 1997 and is married with two children.

The charter debate has loomed large in city elections for two decades.

There have been four failed ballot measure to change the charter, in 1989, 1995, 2008 and 2012. During the most recent attempt, voters defeated a charter change measure by less than one percent.